Why is my rigid body object floating as if there is no gravity?
Finally solved this problem. Here is the link to the successful project file output:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmTCE0c4SrI

The solution:
1st problem:  the point of origin in the post was too low and needed to be moved up. This required to rework all the animations from scratch.

2nd problem: the gravity settings needed to be adjusted and animated along the time line to get a more realistic result. And the friction and damping settings needed tweaking, as well as animating them with key frames. And voila.